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WINNER OF SIX SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS D.C. AWARDS FOR 2022

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RELIGION

RELIGION

STILL SAY HIS NAME: ARCHIE ELLIOTT

30 Years Later, Dorothy Elliott Still Fighting for Justice for Her Son

By Hamil R. Harris WI Contributing Writer

Dorothy Elliott, 81, still breaks down when she talks about the death of her son Archie Elliott III, on Friday June 18, 1993, when he was fatally shot in police custody at the corners of Marbury Drive and Kipling Parkway in District Heights, Maryland.

Elliott III was headed home to Forestville from a construction job in Virginia when a police officer stopped his car because it was swerving. He was tested and failed a sobriety test. Then what happened next remains an unresolved matter.

Mrs. Elliott, a Prince George’s County school teacher, and Archie Elliott Jr. a Virginia judge, concede that their son may have been drinking, but they are sure he didn’t deserve what happened next.

“When Archie was slain, people looked at the circumstances around

ARCHIE Page 46

Greater Washington DC Black Chamber of Commerce Gala

By Micha Green WI Managing Editor

While the District might be internationally renowned for being the nation’s capital and the hub for countrywide politics, the Greater Washington DC Black Chamber of Commerce (GWBCC) offered a reminder that D.C. is also home to booming Black businesses. Highlighting changemakers in the arts and business, the local commerce organization hosted its inaugural “Juneteenth Soirée.” Held at the Hamilton Hotel on June 19, the gala, themed “Art of Black Business,” celebrated Black freedom, entrepreneurship and ingenuity.

McDuffie Holds Hearing on DC Reparations Bill

By James Wright WI Staff Writer

D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I- At-Large), in his capacity as chair of the Committee on Business and Economic Development, convened a hearing on his bill that would consider reparations for African Americans in the District on June 16.

The hearing took place at the John A. Wilson Building in Northwest. McDuffie, an independent, said his legislation, The Reparations Foundation Fund and Task Force Establishment Act of 2023, will start the process of repairing the damage that the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow laws in the nation’s capital has heaped upon African Americans.

“We do not live in a post racial society, and racial equality has not been achieved,” said McDuffie, 48, in his Feb. 24 letter to the secretary of the Council on the legislation.

“If ever we are to achieve racial equity in this country, it will require an official recognition of the role of government-sanctioned slavery, segregation, and racism that denied

REPARATIONS Page 11

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